INOVENERGY – A PROJECT FOR ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN THE AGROFOOD INDUSTRY SECTOR
V. R. Ferreira, J. B. Ribeiro, A. R. Gaspar, J. J. Costa, A. V. Oliveira
ADAI – Associação para o Desenvolvimento da Aerodinâmica Industrial, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Coimbra, Rua Luís
Reis Santos, Pólo II, 3030-788 Coimbra, Portugal
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
ABSTRACT
INTENDED OUTPUTS
The Inovenergy Project - Energy Efficiency in the Agro-Food Industrial Sector aims at surveying the energy use
profiles of six industry subsectors: meat, fish, dairy, wine, fruit & vegetables and food conservation & distribution.
This project is particularly focused on accounting the energy use in the freezing and refrigerating chambers, since
these energy intensive equipment’s are responsible for a major fraction of the energy demands in this industrial
sector.
The Portuguese agro-food industry is mainly developed by small to medium industrial units where typically, the
annual values of energy consumption are below the threshold limit stipulated by the Portuguese regulation for
mandatory energy audits. Therefore, a good potential for energy savings in this sector is expected in this sector, as
reported by IDAE – Instituto para la Diversificacion y Ahorro de la Energía, for the same kind of industry in Spain. To
date, there are no studies in Portugal that characterize this fundamental sector, hence the importance of conducting
a nationwide energy survey to establish fundamental energy and environmental Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s)
that would also serve for benchmarking.
The presentation and preliminary findings of this project will be presented including the characteristics and
operating features of the refrigeration chambers and equipment’s which will be cross-referenced with the annual
energy bills and production volumes.
To summarize the business's annual production, turnover and
process features.
To collect annual energy requirements and technical features
of the main cold producing equipment's.
To assess building features of acclimatized areas (insulation
type and state, doors sealing's, dimension, etc.)
SCOPE OF THE PROJECT
Project Inovenergy – Energy Efficiency in the Agroindustry
Sector (Financed by COMPETE-SIAC-AAC1/SIAC/2011-Project
18642) was classified as a project of exceptional relevance and
intends to have an in-depth understanding of not only the
energy use in this sector, but also to survey the cold producing
equipment, as this is, in most cases, the primary factor in
increased energy consumptions, a value estimated to be of
about 30% of a company’s cost structure. This project involves
a partnership between eight institutions among superior
education teaching institutions, state laboratories and
producers associations, namely IPCB – Instituto Politécnico de
Castelo Branco as the project’s coordinator, IPVC - Instituto
Politécnico de Viana do Castelo, IPB - Instituto Politécnico de
Bragança, Animaforum – Agrocluster from Ribatejo, UC –
Universidade de Coimbra through ADAI-LAETA, ISQ – Instituto
de Soldadura e Qualidade, IPP - Instituto Politécnico de
Portalegre and UBI – Universidade da Beira Interior in order to
collect the required data throughout all of the continental
Portugal. The fundamental idea behind the project is to
address the lack of comprehensive information regarding
energy use in cold production so that one can advocate proper
energy efficiency measures to maximize company’s
competitiveness and ultimately, to reduce the Portuguese
energy import debt and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG).
FIRST PHASE - ONGOING
Companies' general characteristics (CAE, dimension, annual turnover, etc.)
Type, costs and amount of energy inputs
Raw material and annual production
Active and passive refrigeration related equipment's characterization
SECOND PHASE
In-depth energy audits to two companies per rank and institution
Assessment of collected data and study of energy efficiency measures
Results publication through Workshops and Best Practice Guides – data for benchmarks
Management software to quickly point to sector-specific energy efficiency measures
RESULTS FOR THE PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENTS
GENERAL DATA
NUMBER OF COMPANIES INCLUDED SO FAR
AVERAGE ANNUAL PRODUCTION AND TURNOVER BY RANK
AVERAGE ANNUAL ENERGY INPUTS AND SUM OF COSTS
AVERAGE ANNUAL COST BY ENERGY INPUT